Oaths

It seems as though our society has lost the ability to keep our word.  Someone committing to do something is almost never a guarantee that they will do that thing. In 1 Nephi 4:37, we find a different story.  Nephi, after killing Laban and deceiving his servant Zoram, convinces Zoram that he should flee into the wilderness with them.  They were afraid that if they left Zoram in Jerusalem, he would tell everyone where they had gone.  But, "When Zoram had mad an oath unto us, our fears did cease concerning him." 

Some of the best oath keepers in the Book of Mormon are the Lamanites.  Not even the good Lamanites.  In Alma 44:8, the Lamanite armies have attacked the Nephites and are being destroyed.  Moroni offers the Lamanite leader Zerahemnah a choice - Surrender your weapons of war and swear to never fight against the Nephites again, and we will let you walk away.  But Zerahemnah replies by saying "We will not suffer to take an oath unto you, which we know we shall break."  So the fighting continued and the Lamanites were destroyed.  It is amazing to see that Moroni believed that Zerahemnah would keep the oath.  He would have let the Lamanites walk away if they promised to not fight again.  Not only that, but Zerahemnah was unwilling to make the oath, simply because he knew he would break it.  

Perhaps we need to be more consistent in following through with the things we say we will do.  

The Man in the Glass

When you get what you want in your struggle for self And the world makes you king for a day Just go to the mirror and look at yourself And see what that man has to say. For it isn't your father, or mother, or wife  Whose judgment upon you must pass The fellow whose verdict counts most in your life Is the one staring back from the glass. He's the fellow to please – never mind all the rest For he's with you, clear to the end And you've passed your most difficult, dangerous test If the man in the glass is your friend. You may fool the whole world down the pathway of years And get pats on the back as you pass But your final reward will be heartache and tears If you've cheated the man in the glass.  - Peter Dale Wimbrow Sr.

Fear Not

During the book of Numbers, the children of Israel are wandering through the Sinai desert.  Numbers 13 and 14 tell us the story of the twelve men who scouted out the promised land.  They found it full of good things, much better than the wilderness they were in.  But when they returned to report to Moses, ten of them allowed their fear ro get the better of them.  They convinced the people that the giant inhabitants of the land would be too hard to fight.  Joshua and Caleb, though, had faith that the Lord would help them.  But because of the doubt of the other ten, the people were too afraid to move forward.  Because of this fear, they wandered in the wilderness for forty more years.

Run!

Genesis 39 tells us the story of Joseph and Potiphar's wife.  Elder Hartman Rector, Jr. in the January 1973 Ensign, said, "Joseph did the very best thing he could do under the circumstances.  The scripture records, "... he left his garment in her hand, and fled, and or him out."  Or, in today's language, he ran.  Maybe it doesn't sound like a very sophisticated thing to do... Yet Joseph ran, and because he did, he was temporarily placed in prison, where he was shut out from society, but if he had not run, he would have been shut out from God perhaps forever, because he would not have been in condition to receive the necessary communications that made him the great prophet that he was." (Live above the Law to Be Free)  In Matthew 4:10 Christ says, "Get thee hence, Satan."  If you were to change this around, and speak to your self, it might be something like, "Get thee hence from Satan."  By our own actions we can get Satan out of our vicinity, even if we have to move ourselves away, leaving Satan behind.  In Galatians 5:7, Paul makes the statement, "Ye did well to run", but then poses the question, "Who did hinder you that ye should not obey the truth?"  We are the only ones who can stop ourselves from running from Satan - running to Christ.

Intent

"How can we escape that nihilism that attends total attachment to the things of this world, and rejoice in goods of first intent without trespassing on religion, and how can we go that far without jeopardizing our religious freedom? The best education of the past has found an easy solution to that one, and it is to study whatever you study with real intent, Aristotle's spoudaiotes, "high seriousness." If you approach any study in a spirit of high seriousness, if you take it as a thing of first intent, your study, whether of science, literature, art, or philosophy, is necessarily a spiritual and a devout study." - Hugh Nibley Goods of First and Second Intent